NSN905 Transition to Safe Independent Clinical Practice

Unit Outline: Semester 2 2024, Kelvin Grove, Internal

Overview

Practice as a registered nurse requires the application of knowledge from nursing and related sciences to inform client care, a range of cognitive and practice-based skills which include clinical reasoning, evidence-based decision making, multi-modal communication and care co-ordination, and professional attitudes regarding the delivery of  quality nursing care . This is the final clinical practice unit and provides you with the opportunity to consolidate all course experiences and demonstrate required safe practice performance in the health workplace as a beginning level registered nurse. Your learning in this unit occurs predominantly off campus within healthcare contexts and you will complete 8 weeks/320 hours of clinical practice. A thorough understanding of the NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice, National Health Priority Areas, Aged Care Standards and National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) standards is essential to nursing practice.

This is a designated unit which is essential to your course progression. Designated units include professional experience units, units requiring the development of particular skills, and units requiring demonstration of certain personal qualities. If you fail to achieve a satisfactory level of performance in a designated unit, you may be excluded from enrolment or will be put on academic probation. If you fail a designated unit twice within your course, you may be excluded. Supplementary assessment is not available on designated units.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Demonstrate evidence-based practice, clinical reasoning, and decision making to provide culturally safe, quality, person-centred care consistent with the NMBA Registered Nurse Standards for Practice and the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards at a beginner practitioner level.
2. Safely and accurately perform medication calculations and demonstrate safe administration of medicines in both the simulated environment and the clinical practice setting.
3. Demonstrate critical thinking and clinical reasoning in diverse and complex healthcare settings consistent with the provision of safe, quality person-centred care across the lifespan.
4. Coordinate and lead provision of care for consumers, families, and the broader community, under supervision.

Content

Learning Approaches

This unit will use inquiry-based learning approaches within a blended learning framework to prepare you for the Registered Nurse role in nursing practice. Learning opportunities in the form of, face to face simulation and online activities, will be available to you.  This unit is a work integrated learning unit, where you learn predominantly off campus within the healthcare environment. Learning activities will use inquiry-based learning approaches to prepare you for transition to the Registered Nurse role.

Experiential learning is at the forefront of this unit, with you attending for an extended period of time in the off-campus healthcare environment. Healthcare environments may include clinics and home-based, community, mental health, and acute care facilities. You are expected to take on responsibility for care provision with respect to the coordination and leadership of care for consumers, families, and the wider community; under supervision.

Preparation for this unit involves review of concepts explored in previous units to facilitate application to practice. You will prepare for this off-campus experience through a mandatory simulated clinical activity. Prior to clinical placement you will also be directed to revisit safe practice principles, quality use of medicines and administration of same, drawing on the unit learning activities.

Clinical supervisors will facilitate and support transfer of knowledge and skills to the real-world context in line with the requirements to satisfactorily complete the Australian Nursing Standards Assessment Tool (ANSAT). Learning experiences will include a focus on promoting implementation of evidence-based, scientific knowledge, communication, critical inquiry, digital literacy, and intra- and interprofessional collaboration as an ethical, socially inclusive, and culturally safe practitioner.

This unit requires attendance at an off-campus clinical placement. Placement opportunities are negotiated by QUT with healthcare facilities and are finite in number. You cannot organise your own placement. You must be available for shift-work rostering, which enables patient care to be delivered 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Travel may be involved, and clinical placements can occur during semester breaks. Any absence from an off-campus clinical placement will reduce the opportunity for competence development – your performance may not be assessed and a grade of ‘Unsatisfactory’ may be awarded.

Where absence is due to special or unforeseeable circumstances independently supported by documentation (e.g. medical certificate), every effort will be made to accommodate you in an alternate placement within the same semester. If a student is absent due to illness during their clinical placement they are required to complete additional hours at a future time to meet the mandatory clinical completion hours for the unit, and cumulatively meet eligibility for graduation. If due to the nature of your special circumstances and/or limited placement availability an alternate placement cannot be negotiated, you will be advised to seek withdrawal from the unit without academic or financial penalty. Standard course progression cannot be guaranteed following an Unsuccessful grade or withdrawal from a clinical placement unit.

You will receive further additional information and explanation consistent with this statement in lectures and information will be added to unit Canvas sites.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

You will receive feedback on your learning and assessment through:

• Ongoing formative feedback via self-check exercises and through whole of class feedback in online communities
• Progressive written or recorded feedback on academic/professional literacy and applied medical calculation skills on both formative and summative assessment tasks via Turnitin, in addition to the feedback on the Criterion Reference Assessment sheet
• Feedback on clinical performance will be provided by the clinical facilitator using the ANSAT tool at an interim timepoint halfway through your clinical placement and formally at the end of clinical placement

Assessment

Overview

There are three assessments to be completed in this unit.  You must achieve 100% in medication calculations (within Med+Safe) and achieve all criteria on the clinical performance assessment tool to achieve an overall satisfactory grade for this unit. The Med+Safe has many practice in-built tests for you to practice achieving 100%. You must also satisfactorily complete an interprofessional education learning module and this forms part of your ePortfolio. These are requirements for you (and QUT) to ensure you can safely practice and act appropriately as required by the National Health and Safety standards and ANMAC safety of the public standards. 

To receive a satisfactory grade in the unit you must complete mandatory clinical hours, all hours that a student is absent from clinical placement require attendance at a clinical completion option.

There is no capacity to offer unlimited opportunities for clinical completion hours. Failure to self-select clinical completion hours when invited (through the Work Integrated Learning team) and/or attend agreed clinical completion hours will cause delays to course progression. Failure to complete agreed clinical completion hours will result in the unit grade being finalised as unsatisfactory.

Unit Grading Scheme

S (Satisfactory) / U (Unsatisfactory)

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Med+Safe Exam

The exam consists of multiple choice questions regarding safe practice and a MedSafe test. 

Safe Practice Questions: Multiple choice questions focus on application of principles of safe practice. Evidence of 100% successful completion is required.

MedSafe: Evidence of 100% successful completion of the required test in the Med+Safe application during the invigilated school-based exam time period. Test questions focus on calculations and the development of knowledge and skills associated with medication administration and quality use of medicines.

MedSafe certificates are awarded once you have achieved 100% for the designated test. The MedSafe certificate uploaded must reflect the date and time of your invigilated test, including your name exactly as it appears in the student's enrolment.

You may be eligible for one further opportunity to undertake this assessment if you do not achieve 100%. The same assessment conditions of invigilated exam apply.

Failure to complete this assessment within the specified timeframes and invigilated conditions will result in an unsatisfactory grade in this unit and withdrawal of your off-campus clinical work experience.

Threshold Assessment:

Professional accreditation mandates demonstration of safe practice in both skills performance and medication safety prior to work integrated learning.  

Assessment: Interprofessional education learning activity module

You will be provided with a link to the Faculty of Health Interprofessional Education (IPE) Canvas site where you need to undertake Module 3: Interprofessional Conflict and Collaboration, the relevant quiz and generate a certificate of completion.

This learning activity extends your understanding of effective teamwork, collaboration and conflict resolution within the IPE context. The module uses scenarios and focuses on complex problems and team processes including leadership capabilities. 

You will then draw on learning from the IPE module to complete a critical essay in response to a selected interprofessional practice case study addressing key elements of nursing practice reflective of the NMBA Professional Codes and Standards.

This is an assignment for the purposes of an extension.

Threshold Assessment:

For the purpose of professional accreditation IPE activities need to be completed by the end of semester.

Assessment: Clinical Practice (ANSAT)

Clinical performance assessment (320 hours)

Academic Integrity

Students are expected to engage in learning and assessment at QUT with honesty, transparency and fairness. Maintaining academic integrity means upholding these principles and demonstrating valuable professional capabilities based on ethical foundations.

Failure to maintain academic integrity can take many forms. It includes cheating in examinations, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion, and submitting an assessment item completed by another person (e.g. contract cheating). It can also include providing your assessment to another entity, such as to a person or website.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Further details of QUT’s approach to academic integrity are outlined in the Academic integrity policy and the Student Code of Conduct. Breaching QUT’s Academic integrity policy is regarded as student misconduct and can lead to the imposition of penalties ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Requirements to Study

Requirements

A blue card is required to complete this unit. A blue card confirms that you have passed a screening of your criminal history (the Working with Children Check) and have been approved to work with children and young people. For more information on the blue card and how to apply please visit the QUT website.

Blue Card

A blue card is required to complete this unit. A blue card confirms that you have passed a screening of your criminal history (the Working with Children Check) and have been approved to work with children and young people. For more information on the blue card and how to apply please visit the QUT website.

Risk Assessment Statement

During clinical work experience, you are exposed to a range of risks and hazards that are normally encountered by nurses practising in a variety of health care settings. When undertaking clinical work experience, you are automatically subject to the workplace health and safety policies, procedures, and regulations of the healthcare facility. You are required, by law, to comply with these policies and procedures at all times. To minimise risks in this unit, it is essential that you:

• Participate in the healthcare facility orientation session
• Act in accordance with organisational workplace health and safety policies
• Are appropriately supervised by a registered nurse at all times
• Undertake the required theoretical and practical preparation prior to commencement of the placement
• Are aware of specific risks and hazards associated with the particular clinical area to which you have been assigned
• Act within your scope of practice and the requirements of this unit
• Maintain your personal health and immunisation status.

Course Learning Outcomes

NS89 Master of Nursing - Entry to Practice

1. Analyse and apply scientific knowledge and skills in context of nursing and related disciplines to the provision of holistic, person-centred, evidence-based nursing across the life span
   Relates to: Med+Safe Exam, Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)
2. Evaluate practice outcomes drawing upon critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills to examine person-centred nursing care and make evidence-based decisions
   Relates to: Med+Safe Exam, Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)
3. Practice as an ethical, socially inclusive and culturally safe practitioner, reflective of your professional nursing identity across a range of health service settings
   Relates to: Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)
4. Enact and sustain effective communication skills, therapeutic relationships and professional capabilities to practice independently and in inter and intraprofessional teams, to ensure safe person-centred care
   Relates to: Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)
5. Demonstrate developing socially informed leadership capabilities of self and others to achieve positive individual and community outcomes in dynamic health care contexts
   Relates to: Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)
6. Demonstrate research skills and use of contemporary evidence to justify clinical decisions and inform nursing practice
   Relates to: Interprofessional education learning activity module, Clinical Practice (ANSAT)